Tough Guy and the Royal Guard

Solo Sunday - Dungeons and Dragons Part 1 https://youtu.be/QPH0Qwe5dKk

Deck Pitch: Play Star-Lord as risky as you want to because you’re taking lots of sources for tough and damage negation while you have a spear wall of Wakandan Women doing the heavy lifting of keeping you on your feet.

If I had a nickel for every time I built a Star-Lord deck that paired up with the Dora Milaje, I’d have two nickels, but honestly I don’t think it’s that weird. I think that these badass women were designed to be played with Star-Lord’s ability. Just look at the evidence:

Aneka costs 3
Ayo costs 3
Dora Milaje costs 3
Okoye costs 3 (if you ignore one of the resources you need to play her)

It’s literally a match made in Fantasy Flights Games heaven! Every time you want to get out a Dora card all you have to do is give yourself an encounter card and Bam! You have an awesome ally. Except you do need to pay one additional for Okoye, but ride this hype with me. Ignore that.

Detailed Premise

We are running a bunch of 3-cost cards to wring every last bang out of each of our bucks. The gameplan is pretty simple, try and play a 3-cost card every turn with "What could go wrong?" and then ride the wave of encounter cards by having the Dora Milaje help clean up your messes and avoid damage with Tough Status cards. While I do want to try and get our the allies as early as possible, I don't think this deck really cares which 3-costs you're throwing down every turn except for Hard Knocks because there needs to be a minion around to knock out.

Mulligan Priorities

1st - Something with the Wakanda trait (Aneka, Atlas Bear, Ayo, Okoye, or Dora Milaje)
2nd - Something Guardian related (Knowhere, Leader of the Guardians, or Star-Lord's Helmet) 3rd - Shake it Off or Forcefield Generator to help let you tank some early hits if you don't end up spending it on turn one.

Basic Strategy of the Deck

Normally I feel like holding on to cards I couldn't play this turn that I know I'm going to play next turn is a trap. I end up with that Med Team in my hand for another two turns because I drew something else that took priority over it and I end up using it to pay for something after it's burned it's way through my pocket. I don't feel like that way as strongly with Star-Lord because either this turn or the next one I can just take an encounter card to play that card for cheaper or for free. So if you draw a couple Dora Milaje cards on a turn, you can easily play both of them and if you have another 3-cost you're really needing right now, either save one of the allies or the 3-cost for another turn. That is part of this risk we're leaning into. Don't fear deck cards in your hand if they are expensive, cherish them and know they are gonna pay off the next turn. No Ragerts!

Once we get out our Doras, we want to keep them around the whole game. So outfit them with Energy Shields and use your Med Teams to top them off. With just the basic activation of each of them and the support we're looking at our max damage at turn ten and threat literally goes up to eleven (if you have Leader of the Guardians in play). We are packed with versatility, so they can handle almost anything the villain throws at you while you just hold on tight and wait until the game is over.

We are playing incredibly defensively with this deck. Hard Knocks and Shake it Off both give us toughs so we can avoid the villain's swings. But if we don't have tough Jet Boots and Forcefield Generator both kick in when we might take some damage. Ideally all of this getting between you and the villain will be enough to avoid all the consequences of your actions, but if for some reason you've had a really rough turn, Bad Boy can save your bacon as a final resort.

Interesting Interactions to keep in mind

Atlas Bear is a card I've never included in a deck until now. But I though there was a potentially cool trick you could do with Star-Lord. With his Alter-Ego action, you can swap an event in your hand with the top card of your deck. Then since you're guaranteed the top card is an event, you can exhaust Atlas Bear to draw that card for just the cost of 1 damage.

This deck is running lots of resource dumps so if there's nothing you want to do with your hand, you can chunk most of it to deal some damage with Element Guns and prevent consequential damage with Energy Shields. So unless there's a 3-cost you're planning to hold onto for next turn, you should be able to empty your hand every turn one you're set up and it be worthwhile.

Mister Knife is a surprisingly toothless nemesis so even with just one Element Gun in play you can easily take him out without it costing you too much. With both Element Guns, its a simple two resource dump and he's gone. For this reason, Face the Past is a great card to Star-Lord.

--- Munkey